Once you begin to evolve some really interesting turtles, you are going to want to share them with others. Evolved Art provides a number of mechanisms for sharing your evolved turtles. You can share the images that the turtles draw. You can share the turtle definition so that others can import your turtle into their populations. And you can share entire populations of turtles with other Evolved Art users. It is also possible to share the turtle's drawing as an image inside a PDF document or an Encapsulated PostScript file. PDF documents are very portable and the turtle image is vector based, which means that printing should be performed at the available resolution of the printer providing better quality printing than printing the turtle image. Encapsulated PostScript files are also vector based, but more importantly they are a native format for Adobe Illustrator, allowing you to import your turtle into Illustrator and work with it directly at the vector level.
The easiest and most common means of sharing your turtles with others will be by sending images of their drawings to others. You may wish to post your favorite turtle to your Facebook wall. Maybe you have a turtle that you think could inspire a corporate logo, or make a nice background for your next project. In these cases, you will want to send an image.
There are several ways to share the image of a turtle. The primary method is to save the image to your iPad's Photo Library, then share it from there. For example, if you wish to upload your turtle's image to Facebook, the simplest way to accomplish this is to copy the image to your photo library, then use the Facebook app to upload it from there. Or, if you like to share your photo library with your family, or display it on your Apple TV, then the photo library is the means to accomplish this. The other method of sharing a turtle's image is to open it inside of another app on your iPad.
To copy a turtle's image to your photo library, you need to open the turtle inside the Turtle View. Once the turtle is open in the Turtle view, tap on the Action button to display the action sheet. Tap on the Save Image To Photos action. The action will pause momentarily as it draws the turtle, then the action sheet will disappear. The turtle's drawing is now in your Photo Library. Open the Photos iPad app to view the image and share it.
Emailing your turtles is very easy and provides many advantages. When you email your turtle, it will include several attachments - drawing PNG image, turtle definition file, turtle program text file, turtle drawing PDF document, and an Encapsulated PostScript document. With all of these attachments, the recipient of your email will be able to use your turtle in virtually any way that they desire. The turtle definition file will allow them to import your turtle into their own populations. The Encapsulated PostScript file allows them to work with your turtle in Adobe Illustrator. The PDF document allows them to bring the turtle into various applications capable of processing PDF documents. And the image file allows them to print your turtle, or include its drawing in other documents.
Please remember that the construction of the email document involves a lot of computation to produce the various attachments. For this reason, it may take some time before the email is presented for transmission. Please be patient.
The iPad provides many apps capable of opening documents of various types. This includes images, text, and PDF, as well as many others. Evolved Art allows you to open your populations and turtles in these apps. The most likely document that you will wish to open in another app is a turtle's drawing. Evolved Art allows you to open the turtle's drawing as a PNG image file. This allows you to view the turtle's drawing in apps such as the iPad's Photo app, in apps that can edit images, or apps that support uploading to websites such as Facebook or Flickr, or even display your turtles on your Apple TV. You can also open your turtle's drawing as a PDF document, which is one of the most portable documents available. You can also open the turtle's drawing as an Encapsulated PostScript document, although at the time of this writing, I am unaware of any iPad apps capable of displaying Encapsulated PostScript files.
Evolved Art also supports opening its native documents for the turtle and population definitions. These documents are actually XML documents which most text editors can display. However, since only Evolved Art understands the data within these definition files, their contents are not likely to be of much use in other apps. However, there is one very useful purpose for the ability to open these documents: storage! By providing the ability to open turtle and population definition files, you are able to open these documents in apps such as DropBox, which allows you the ability to archive as well as share your turtles and populations.
As mentioned previously, if you have installed DropBox on your iPad, you have the ability to save your turtle and population definition documents to DropBox. This can be useful for archiving your work, as well as for sharing your turtles with other Evolved Art users. Simply use the Open Turtle In or Open Population In actions in the Turtle View and Population Views respectively, and select DropBox as the application in which to open. This will upload your population or turtle definition to DropBox.
To open population or turtle definitions from DropBox, simply open the DropBox app, select the definition file which will display as text, and select the action button. This should display Evolved Art as one of the applications capable of opening the file. Select Evolved Art and the definition will be opened in Evolved Art allowing you to import it.
Many users will want to share their coolest turtles with friends, and a great way to do this is to post your turtle's drawing to your Facebook photo album. As mentioned previously, the way to place your turtle's drawing on Facebook is to first copy the turtle to your iPad's photo library. Open the turtle in the Turtle Details view. Select the Save To Photos action from the action sheet. This will save a copy of your turtle's drawing in your iPad photo library. Then open your Facebook app, and share the turtle's drawing from the iPad photo library.